Hazelnut Loaf Cake from Spoonfuls of Germany

This delicious and different cake comes from Nadia Hassani, author of Spoonfuls of Germany. Nadia writes about traditional German cuisine on her blog and wrote a cookbook by the same name. In Germany, wheat farina is used for many different recipes and is not solely regarded as a breakfast cereal, as it is in the United States. She wanted to share this recipe with you, which has been adapted to use our whole grain brown rice farina. Nadia emigrated to the United States in 1998 and found there was a lot left to be explored in German cuisine here. She took up the challenge of writing Spoonfuls of Germany to bring more awareness to the diversity of German food and get a taste of the German culture. The revised and expanded edition of Spoonfuls of Germany will be available this Spring, see her website for details.

Heat the milk in a small saucepan. Add the farina and stir well. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease the sides and the bottom of a 8½ x 4½ x 2½ loaf pan very well. Sprinkle the bottom with farina. Turn the pan upside down over the kitchen sink and knock off any excess farina.

Mix the hazelnut flour, baking powder, cocoa, salt and sugar in a bowl. Add the egg and the vanilla to the cooled farina mix and stir well.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and fold just until evenly moistened. The dough will be quite thick. Pour it into the prepared pan and gently shake the pan to distribute the dough evenly.

Bake on the middle rack of the preheated oven for 65 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Gently loosen the sides with a knife and unmold the cake onto a wire rack. Turn it over at once and let cool completely before cutting.